Beginning on Wednesday ( 12 January ), the operator of Gutzy Asia will be prohibited from receiving any significant benefits, including financial ones, from running the alternative news website and its social media pages.
The restrictions come after Gutzy Asia’s Facebook and X account pages were designated as Declared Online Locations ( DOL ) under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act ( POFMA ) on Tuesday.
Following the spread of “multiple untruths” on these online sources, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) stated in a press release that the declaration was made by Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo .
It will be in effect for two decades, until Jun 11, 2026.
If a website or webpage that is accessible online has three or more different misleading statements of fact that are subject to lively POFMA guidelines, that place is designated a DOL.
At least three of these false claims must have been made on the website platform within the six-month time prior to the DOL charter.
The Online Citizen Asia was the previous title of Gutzy Asia’s material. The Online Citizen Asia’s website and its Facebook, Linked In, and X account pages were designated as DOLs last year, the site was launched.
It has been handed three POFMA adjustment information.
The first publication was released in October 2023 after a deception about a lady who had fallen from a tower in Yishun.
The second was released in February of this year after the site republished Leong Mun Wai, the then-Chief of Progress Singapore, making false claims about the lack of financial assistance that were given to a couple who lived in the West Coast.
The second was released later that month after it refuted Kenneth Jeyaretnam’s falsified allegation regarding the hire of two condition properties by officials K Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan at Ridout Road.